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PAMPHLETS 


ON 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 


vol 


WHY    COUNTRY    CHURCHES    FAIL 


BY    JOSEPH    H.     ODELL 

AUTHOR  OF  "MOSES  BREEZE,  DOCTOR  OF  SICK  CHURCHES."  ETC. 


ON  the  eve  of  their  wedding-day,  an 
affianced  couple  were  indulging  in 
those  solemn  self-disclosures  which 
such  an  occasion  invites.  He  had  told  her 
of  his  faults  and  shortcomings,  and  had  re- 
ceived an  ample  absolution.  She  was  en- 
gaged in  revealing  her  true,  innermost  self, 
and  he  found  nothing  to  forgive. 

"  But,  my  dear,  I  haven't  told  you  the 
very  worst,"  she  said.  "  I  am  a  somnam- 
bulist." 

"  Oh,  don't  worry  about  it,"  he  replied 
with  an  easy,  chivalrous  air.  "  My  father 
was  a  Methodist  and  my  mother  a  Baptist, 
and  I'd  just  as  soon  go  to  that  church  as 
any  other ! " 

There  are  so  many  possible  morals  to  be 
drawn  from  the  story  that  its  application  is 
better  left  to  the  individual  reader.  We 
may  be  permitted,  however,  to  ask  a  very 
pertinent  question — is  the  church  walking 
in  its  sleep?  If  so,  is  it  not  time  for  an 
awakening,  however  rude  that  awakening 
must  be? 

Statistics,  when  viewed  in  grand  totals, 
may  be  consoling  and  even  inspiring,  but 
they  may  also  numb  the  brain  and  drug  the 
conscience.  The  general  temper  and  atti- 
tude of  the  nation  as  a  whole  may  be  equal- 
ly misleading.  According  to  the  "grand 
totals,"  the  American  church  is  a  healthy 
and  vigorous  institution.  Judged  by  the 
disposition  of  the  people,  the  Christian 
church  holds  a  high  position  in  popular 
esteem.  Is  it  a  case  of  toleration  and  good- 
will run  to  seed? 

In  no  country  on  earth  is  there  so  marked 
a  disposition  to  give  the  church  a  square 
deal,  to  allow  it  every  opportunity  for  free 
development — which  probably  accounts  for 
the  fact  that  the  latest  United  States  reli- 
gious census  reports  the  statistics  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty-six  separate  and  dis- 
tinct denominations,  besides  more  than  a 
thousand   individualistic    and   independent 


churches  that  could  not  find  a  place  within 
any  of  the  regular  sects.  The  one  thing  that 
is  not  true  about  our  religion  is  that  it  is 
mere  sentiment.  Organized  religion  in 
America  is  a  vast,  concrete,  and  practical 
fact  attested  by  fifteen  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  invested  in  property,  with  overhead 
fixed  charges  of  about  two  hundred  millions 
a  year. 

In  spite  of  these  figures,  religion  is  not  a 
trust,  and  more's  the  pity.  Whatever 
opinions  we  may  hold  about  commercial 
combinations,  the  greatest  boon  to  this 
country  would  be  an  organized  ecclesiastical 
movement  in  restraint  of  competition  —  a 
wide-spread,  systematic  merging  of  rival 
church  organizations.  The  immediate  need 
of  the  Protestant  churches  in  the  United 
States  is  not  a  revival  of  religion,  but  a 
renascence  of  common  sense;  less  homiletics 
and  more  economics. 

COUNTRY   DISTRICTS    OVERCHURCHED 

The  rural  population  suffers  most  from 
ecclesiastical  waste.  From  a  poetical  stand- 
point, it  is  advantageous  to  have  the  white 
spire  of  a  church  in  every  landscape;  from 
a  practical  point  of  view,  it  is  a  financial 
and  spiritual  crime.  Ten  churches  may  dis- 
mally fail  where  one  would  be  conspicu- 
ously successful.  When  you  overmultiply 
prophets,  they  become  parasites. 

One  central  unified  institution  in  the 
midst  of  a  rural  community  can  minister  to 
its  intellectual,  social,  and  spiritual  needs; 
divide  the  one  into  ten  little  Zions,  and  you 
have  a  cluster  of  mutually  nullifying  units, 
each  ineffective,  and  in  the  aggregate  a 
drain  upon  the  people. 

The  time  has  come  to  face  the  facts  as 
they  are.  Let  us  take  a  typical  case — that 
of  Lake  Township,  in  Wayne  County, 
Pennsylvania. 

Lake  Township  has  a  population  of 
twelve  hundred,  the  people  being  represen- 


930 


WHY  COUNTRY  CHURCHES  FAIL 


931 


tative  American  citizens.  They  have  three 
post-offices,  seven  schoolhouses,  one  bank, 
and  one  saloon.  The  church  figures  are  as 
follows : 

10  church  buildings. 

14  congregations  (two  of  them  meeting  in 
schoolhouses). 

10  denominations. 

$30,000  invested  in  church  property. 

$4,180  raised  by  churches  per  year. 

$500  sent  into  the  township  by  denomina- 
tional home  mission  boards. 

405  church  members — 36.75  per  cent  of  the 
population.  - 

29  average  membership  of  churches. 

$10.07  average  annual  contribution  per 
member. 

40  average  attendance  at  Sunday  worship  of 
each  church. 

10  ministers  engaged  in  preaching. 

$750  maximum   salary  paid  to  minister. 

1  minister  with  regular  college  and  theologi- 
cal training. 

7  ministers  with  little  more  than  high-school 
training. 

One's  first  impression  from  these  figures 
may  be  that  Lake  Township  is  the  most  in- 
tensely religious  spot  on  the  American  con- 
tinent. A  backward  glance  at  the  church 
membership,  however,  shows  that  more  than 
sixty-three  per  cent  of  its  twelve  hundred 
people  are  not  members  of  any  church  or- 
ganization. In  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  has 
a  congregation  for  every  eighty-eight  in- 
habitants, nearly  two-thirds  of  them  are 
outside  of  the  pale. 

WHY    CHURCHES    FAIL    IN   LAKE    TOWNSHIP 

Doubtless  one  of  the  reasons  for  failure 
in  such  cases  is  that  the  ministers,  on  the 
whole,  are  ill-equipped  for  their  work. 
Another  is  that  the  small  congregations  are 
necessarily  engaged  in  a  desperate  struggle 
for  existence,  each  chiefly  anxious  to  keep 
its  own  little  conventicle  alive.  But  the 
outstanding  cause  is  the  fact  that  these 
churches  are  not  meeting  the  obvious  needs 
of  the  community. 

In  one  part  of  this  particular  township 
there  is  a  book-club,  organized  three  or  four 
years  ago.  There  is  one  small  school 
library.  A  patrol  of  Boy  Scouts  is  being 
organized  in  one  of  the  churches.  If  there 
were  one  or  two  centrally  placed  churches, 
with  reading-rooms  and  recreation  grounds, 
with  agricultural  institutes  and  exhibits  at 
stated  intervals,  with  literary  and  social  en- 
tertainments of  a  high  type,  with  ministers 
trained  to  understand   and  fill  the  varied 


needs  of  the  people,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  story  would  be  entirely  different. 
Ten  men  and  ten  churches  can  fail  where 
one  would  succeed. 

A    WIDER    SURVEY    IN    INDIANA 

Three  typical  counties  in  Indiana  furnish 
an  example  of  deplorable  division  and  con- 
sequent inefficiency. 

Daviess  County,  population  27,747,  church 
membership  32.5  per  cent. 

Marshall  County,  population  24,175,  church 
membership  27.4  per  cent. 

Boone  County,  population  24,673,  church 
membership  41.6  per  cent. 

There  are  231  churches  in  the  three 
counties,  and  they  have  succeeded  in  in- 
teresting one-third  of  the  population.  Of 
these  231  churches,  38.6  per  cent  are  grow- 
ing, 13.6  per  cent  are  standing  still,  and 
47.8  per  cent  are  losing  ground.  Thirty- 
one  churches  have  recently  been  abandoned 
as  unworkable,  representing  a  loss  of  in- 
vested capital  of  $50,000.  The  existing 
churches  are  divided  among  41  denomi- 
nations. 

There  are  115  resident  ministers,  with  an 
average  salary  of  $592  per  year,  about  $50 
a  month,  or  the  wage  of  an  unskilled 
laborer.  In  point  of  fact,  that  is  all  they 
are,  in  many  cases.  Of  the  ministers  labor- 
ing in  these  three  counties,  72  per  cent  do 
not  possess  a  college  and  seminary  educa- 
tion; 57  per  cent  do  not  have  college  train- 
ing of  any  kind;  and  37  per  cent  never  went 
beyond  the  common  school. 

One  township  may  be  taken  as  an  ex- 
ample of  the  utter  folly  of  the  Protestants, 
in  contrast  to  the  Catholics.  Bogard  Town- 
ship, in  Daviess  County,  has  1,393  Protes- 
tants in  its  population,  491  church  mem- 
bers, 9  church  buildings,  and  no  resident 
minister;  while  the  300  Catholics  of  the 
township  have  one  beautiful  building  and 
a  resident  priest. 

The  conclusions  reached  from  a  study  of 
these  three  rural  counties  in  Indiana  are 
exactly  the  same  as  in  Lake  Township  in 
Pennsylvania.  We  find  that  there  are  too 
many  small  churches;  the  ministry  is  ill- 
equipped  for  its  work;  and  there  is  almost 
complete  neglect  of  opportunity  in  grasping 
the  peculiar  needs  of  rural  communities. 

The  last  point  can  be  illustrated  by  an 
analysis  of  the  manner  in  which  each  dol- 
lar is  spent  by  the  churches: 

Minister's    salary 53  cents. 

Buildings  and  repairs... 20  cents. 


932                                           MUNSEY>S  MAGAZINE 

Benevolences 16  cents.  twenty-three    per    cent    of    the   population. 

Sunday  school —  ............  10  4-5  cents.  One- fourth  of  these  are  growing,  twenty-one 

Social   life i-S  of  one  cent.  have  been  abandoned. 

The  effect  of  this  policy  is  visible  at  once  The  average  membership  of  the  Missouri 
in  the  composition  of  the  churches.  Out  of  country  church  is  fifty-three.  In  twenty- 
the  ninety-one  churches  in  Marshall  Coun-  three  villages,  averaging  241  persons  to  a 
ty,  twenty-five  report  that  they  have  no  village,  there  are  fifty-six  churches.  Four 
young  men  under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  villages  —  Novelty  and  Newark,  in  Knox 
and  Boone  County  has  twenty-one  churches  County,  and  Gibbs  and  Brashear,  in  Adair 
without  young  men.  With  literature  brought  County— have  four  churches  each.  Two  of 
by  the  rural  free  delivery,  and  lodges  at  these  villages  have  less  than  225  inhabi- 
the  various  crossroads,  young  men  are  not  tants,  giving  each  church  a  parish  of  forty- 
likely  to  flock  to  institutions  which  deny  five  persons. 

their  social  instincts,  and  offer  nothing  but  There  is  not  a  men's  club  or  organization 

sectarian  and  doctrinal  pabulum.  among  the  Protestant  churches.    Nothing  is 

being  attempted  in  the  way  of  social  wel- 

CONDITIONS    IN    ILLINOIS    AND    MISSOURI  fare    Qr     entertainment        ]£    many     of    the 

A  recent  survey  of  forty-four  country  churches,  preaching  is  held  only  at  inter- 
communities in  Illinois  gives  the  record  of  vals,  as  one  minister  is  trying  to  serve  three 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  churches,  or  four  organizations.  It  requires  $50,500 
Protestant  and  Catholic.  Of  these  seventy-  a  year  to  keep  the  159  semianimated 
seven  are  growing,  forty-five  are  at  a  stand-  Protestant  churches  going  at  all. 
still,  fifty-six  are  losing  ground,  and  forty-  umoN  or  CHUrches  the  urgent  need 
seven  are  practically  dead  and  abandoned. 

The   church  members   form  thirty-one  per  In  the -first   place,   the  boards   of  home 

cent  of  the  population,  but  only  about  nine-  missions,  sustentation,  or  church  extension 

teen  per  cent  attend  church  regularly.  of  the  various  denominations  ought  not  to 

The  saddest  feature  about  these  Illinois  contribute  money  to  any  church  in  an  over- 
rural  districts  is  the  utter  absence  of  any  churched  region.  If  a  number  of  rigid  sec- 
facilities  for  recreation  and  amusement.  tarians  in  any  given  neighborhood  have  not 
Life  is  a  cheerless  grind,  the  only  relief  be-  sufficient  charity  to  worship  with  their  fel- 
ing  neighborhood  gossip  at  the  post-office  low  Christians,  they  should  at  least  be 
or  the  nearest  grain-elevator.  The  land  is  compelled  to  pay  for  the  luxury  of  their 
growing  poorer  for  lack  of  proper  methods  differentiating  dogmas, 
of  farming.  In  the  next  place,  the  leading  men,  both 

The  effect  of  this  upon  the  churches  is  clerical   and  lay,   of  all  denominations  of 

marked,  forming  a  deadly  and  easily  trace-  kindred  faith  should  begin  at  once  a  propa- 

able  circle.     The  farmer  starved  the  land,  ganda  designed  to  reach  the  rural  districts. 

the   land   starved   the    farmer,    the   farmer  The  points  of  agreement  in  doctrine  and 

starved  the  church,  the  church  starved  the  polity  should  be  emphasized,  and  grounds 

preacher;  then  the  better-educated  minister  of  union  pointed  out.    Where  organic  union 

went  away,   and  some   one  who  had  crept  is    impossible    or   inexpedient,    a    form    of 

into  the  ministry  by  the  back  door — a  half-  federation  should  be  advocated,  by  which 

educated   and  half-hearted  man — took  the  churches    of    any    given  locality    could   be 

vacant  place.     He,  in  his  turn,  is  starving  grouped  for  worship  and  social  service. 

the   farmer   and  the   farmer's   family  both  In  the  third  place,  an  economic  conscience 

mentally  and  spiritually.  should  be  developed  in  the  matter  of  church 

Missouri  shows  up  even  worse.  The  finance.  Four  churches,  existing  in  a  kind 
records  of  three  representative  rural  coun-  of  suspended  animation  on  a  revenue  of  five 
ties  —  Knox,  Adair,  and  Sullivan  —  give  hundred  dollars  a  year  each,  would  be  a 
only  twenty-nine  per  cent  church  member-  vigorous  and  aggressive  institution  if  united 
ship,  both  Protestant  and  Catholic,  out  of  and  possessed  of  an  income  of  two  thousand 
53,701  population.  There  are  five  Catholic  dollars.  The  proceeds  of  a  sale  of  the  three 
churches  taking  care  of  six  per  cent  of  the  abandoned  churches  would  equip  a  build- 
people.  Each  of  these  churches  has  clubs  ing  really  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the 
for  men,  for  women,  and  for  young  people  neighborhood. 

respectively.     There  are  one  hundred  and  Wherever  the  country  church  has  become 

eighty   Protestant    churches   ministering   to  vitally  related  to  the  life  of  the  community, 


WHY  COUNTRY  CHURCHES  FAIL 


933 


it  has  been  successful.  The  ideal  is  not 
impossible  of  attainment,  if  the  farmers  will 
use  the  same  common  sense  that  they  ordi- 
narily give  to  the  establishment  of  the  com- 
munal grain-elevator,  cheese-factory,  or 
day-school,  and  if  they  are  not  encouraged 
in  sectarian  crankiness  by  denominational 
leaders  and  literature. 

THE    MISSION    OF    THE    COUNTRY    CHURCH 

The  first  mission  of  the  rural  church  must 
of  course  be  spiritual.  There  is  no  danger, 
however,  of  that  function  being  minimized. 
Every  minister's  call  and  consecration  rest 
upon  the  primacy  of  the  spiritual.  But  in 
order  to  strengthen  and  make  that  mission 
real,  the  interest  of  the  soul  must  be  re- 
lated to  every  other  interest  of  life. 

Two-thirds  of  the  rural  population  of 
America  are  practically  untouched  by  the 
church.  If  the  churches  were  so  established 
and  maintained  that  they  could  influence 
the  social,  intellectual,  and  business  life  of 
the  community,  this  would  be  immediately 
changed.  The  farmer  will  not  object  to 
driving  as  far  to  the  church  as  he  does  to 
the  store  or  the  post-office,  if  the  church 
becomes  as  necessary  to  his  well-being  as 
the  store  and  the  post-office. 

The  ministry  of  the  country  church 
should  be  specially  trained  for  its  work. 
The  preacher  must  know  something  about 
the  regeneration  of  the  soil,  as  well  as  of  the 
soul.  In  the  Bible,  Jehovah  is  the  giver  of 
fertility  to  the  fields,  and  His  representa- 
tives of  to-day  cannot  afford  to  be  ignorant 
about  the  value  of  nitrogen,  There  is  no 
reason  why  men  should  not  dedicate  their 
lives  to  a  country  ministry,  with  adequate 
special   preparation,   if   the   churches   will 


unite  and  give  them  a  living  wage  and  a 
field  that  holds  possibilities  of  permanent 
service. 

But  the  essential  thing  is  that  the  local 
churches  should  coalesce  in  such  a  way  that 
they  can  establish  and  maintain  a  plant 
that  will  furnish  a  worthy  expression  of 
their  life. 

The  village  or  open-country  churches, 
to-day,  are  chiefly  the  one-room  type — an 
oblong,  barnlike  structure,  furnished  with 
hard,  straight-backed  pews.  With  a  proper 
amalgamation,  that  may  become  one  of  a 
cluster  of  buildings,  or  a  part  of  a  multi- 
form plant.  There  should  be  a  reading- 
room  and  a  library;  a  play- room,  perhaps 
a  bowling-alley  and  a  pool-table;  a  place 
for  exhibitions  and  lectures  bearing  upon 
agriculture  or  social  enjoyment.  The  curse 
of  the  country  is  its  social  sterility,  and 
nothing  but  the  church  can  safely  remove 
that  curse. 

The  recreation  of  the  young  people 
should  be  encouraged  and  supervised  by  the 
church,  with  suitable  grounds  —  baseball 
diamonds  and  tennis-courts  —  and  with 
regular  field-days  and  tournaments  and 
fairs,  where  such  are  not  already  conducted 
by  county  or  State  associations.  But  none 
of  these  ideals  can  be  reached  by  the  present 
little  segregations,  each  occupied  in  its  vain 
struggle  for  existence. 

The  only  way  in  which  the  country 
churches  can  regain  and  maintain  their  hold 
upon  the  people,  and  minister  to  the  total 
life  of  the  community,  is  to  find  a  basis  of 
union  and  sink  their  infinitesimal  differ- 
ences of  doctrine  and  polity.  Then  they 
will  really  serve  their  age  as  their  Master 
served  His. 


IN    THE    CITY— A    MEMORY    OF    HOME 

Through  purple  twilight  still  the  eye  may  mark, 
Like  slender  campaniles,  fretted  tiles 
And  towering  chimneys,  where  the  sunset  smiles 

Softly  beneath  the  slowly  gathering  dark. 

A  silence  falls  upon  the  shadowy  park; 

And  past  the  clustered  tree-tops,  miles  on  miles, 
Borne  faintly  from  afar  through  leafy  aisles, 

The  homesick  fancy  hears  a  farm-dog's  bark. 

And  now  I  breathe  the  scent  of  clover-fields; 

Through  summer  gloom  the  fitful  fireflies  roam ; 
A  distant  bell  makes  silvery  appeals 

From  the  low  vale  beneath  its  starry  dome ; 
And  lo,  o'er  leagues  of  winking  lights  there  steals, 

Dewy  and  sweet,  the  memory  of  home ! 


James  B.  Kenvon 


